Archives for June 2012

I started out SO excited. Wild Horses was *finally* coming out. This book took about three months for me to write–I had to revise things a lot of times, as a novel (even a short one) is an entirely different beast from a novella. You might know it was originally scheduled for a June 5 release but I got a two week extension because it wasn’t ready in time. I really stressed over this book but, in the end, I was proud of it. I love the characters. I had a lot of fun writing the sex scenes. And I was really hoping it was one readers would love too, since they’ve been asking for longer works by me.

The day after Wild Horse was released, it was requested at a piracy forum (already pirating one of my novellas).

I won’t get into complaining about this or explaining why it’s wrong. Lots of others have before me and I’m nowhere near as eloquent.

The problem is that I politely wrote to this forum, explaining that I’m a new author, this is a new release not selling many copies, and could they please have some empthay for me and take it down–I’m trying to provide for my family here. Instead, one of the admins bought the book a few hours later just to upload it.

It hits like a punch in the gut, the wind knocked out of you. This book was so hard to write. And I know readers frequently complain they want longer books by me but…but I’m looking at my plans for the next Stirling Falls book, Sympathy for the Devil, and wondering whether or not it’ll be worth it. Hopefully, a few royalty statements from now will show it *is* worth it despite the piracy and maybe Sympathy can be out by the end of the year. I hope so–I really want to share Tash’s book with you.

The next Circle of Friends novella, Still In Love with You, was due out next month, but I think I’m going to grudgingly ask for another extension and take a bit of a break right now. I’ve had one release after another and this past week hit me really hard. I’m not ashamed to say I cried when they uploaded my new book–it hurt. Hopefully Kashayla and AJ’s story will release in August instead and I’ll get back in the groove of things again.

If you bought any of my books, I want to personally thank you so much. I wish more readers were like you and I really hope you enjoy my stories. <3

Wild Horses isn’t a novella like my other releases–it’s a short novel (over three times the length of, say, Near to You), which is why it’s $4.99. It has lots of sexy times, slightly less vanilla than my other work. I’m nervously awaiting both reader feedback and eventual royalty reports, as there are two more Stirling Falls books planned (and contracted), but my first foray into erotic novel writing took a LOT out of me (coupled with sending takedown notices for my other work–folks, please encourage your friends not to pirate, as it’s very disheartening), so I’ll see if it’s worth continuing. I do hope so! It was lots of fun to spend more time with the characters–and come up with ways to keep the nudity interesting after a few times. 😉

I’m so happy this one is now available! You can find it at Phaze Books in various ebook formats as well as print (print also contains my novella NEAR TO YOU). It’ll be at other sellers shortly.

I thought it would be fun to answer some random reader questions that I haven’t, in fact, been asked yet, but seemed like they could be. (Most reveal I have the finesse of a spaz.)

1. Were YOU ever stepped on by a horse?
Yes! Um…three times so far. Nothing broken but it is PAINFUL. Especially when the horse won’t move but just stands there, like your foot is comfortable to stand on.

2. Were YOU ever almost run down by a horse?
Yes! A few times. I’ve had to stand in doorwarys and block paths so they don’t run in particular places. It’s rather scary.

3. Were YOU ever dragged down a hill by a horse?
No, because I had the sense to let go of the lead immediately when in the field. They are pretty damn fast.

4. English or Western?
I spent a lot of time at a Western farm now but I was raised English. 😉

5. When does SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL come out? (Bonus totally non-horse related question.)
Not for a while yet. Tash’s story is still forming in my head. Hopefully by the end of the year! I’m excited to get to this one.

“Then stop saying it,” Therese said sharply as
she cut a look to the rearview mirror.

Danyiah’s dark brown eyes met her friend’s and she
made a face.

“Mature,” Therese muttered.

“The reason Dani Girl is popular in the first
place is because I talk about these things openly with my readers. Bad dates,
bad job interviews, bad—”

“Stalkers?”

Danyiah pressed her lips together, crossed her arms
under her breasts, and glanced out the side window to sulk. Rolling bright
green hills, acres of fields, and thick wooded areas passed by. The sky
overhead was a rich blue and cloudless, and sun beat through the car windows,
warming her arm despite the blasting air conditioning. Still, the beautiful
June day did nothing to brighten her sour mood.

“You heard Dr. Van Ike,” Randy said from the passenger
seat as he glanced back at her. His auburn hair stuck up in all directions, and
Dani had to suppress the urge—again—to offer him a comb. He shifted, leaning
his tall, broad frame back in the seat which was already pushed far back to
give him leg room. “Discussing the threats publicly could trigger him.”

Right, so she was supposed to shut down her whole
life? For how long? There was a big “ON HIATUS” notice at the top of her blog
now. As of this morning, it had nine hundred and thirteen comments, and she
hadn’t had time to read them all before her best friend Therese and boyfriend
Randy were there to pick her up for the long drive into the country. And now
her apartment was closed up, she was on a leave of absence from her part time
job at a coffee shop—a job she actually liked—and with no idea of how
long it would be for. Sure, the good doctor thought staying low while they
collected her email and snail mail, intercepted her calls, and monitored her
website was a good idea. They might be able to narrow down exactly who they
were dealing with. And maybe he was right. But at the same time, she loathed
the fact that some creep with too much time on his hands could run her out of
her own life like that.

“She’s still sulking,” Randy said with a sigh. His
glasses shifted and he pushed them higher on the bridge of his nose, then
offered a half-hearted smile.

“Of course she is,” Therese responded.

The problem with Therese was that she’d known her five
years, Randy for three, and neither put up with her attitude.

She already missed her home in the city and they’d
only left two and a half hours ago. The nearest town out here for miles was an
itty bitty, country bumpkin place called Stirling Falls—a real
blink-or-you’ll-miss-it kind of deal. She was going to lose her mind.

Danyiah flicked at the bright pink paint on her nails
but it didn’t chip. How long that would last, she didn’t know—since everyone at
Thompson Hills Quarter Horses had no idea why she was coming to stay
there, the story passed around was that she’d be working. Dani had no problem
with a hard day’s work; her blog picked up initially as she chronicled her days
as a clown at a child’s birthday party, then a clerk at a sex toy shop, then
the assistant for an eccentric modern artist, then during her very brief stint
making donuts. No, her problem was that she had to be a farmhand and couldn’t
document it, couldn’t talk about it—couldn’t reveal where she was, or why she’d
gone, or be herself. After years of cultivating a persona and defining
who Danyiah “Dani Girl” Jackson was, she had to stop.

Therese’s GPS announced that they were to take a
right. Dani gazed between the seats and glimpsed the long, dusty road leading
through tall gates. Log fencing sectioned off the front field and horses grazed
over grass, some lifting their heads to face the approaching car and others
preoccupied with food. Multiple buildings stood in the distance, barns tall and
new-looking, and at the far end of the road sat the sprawling one story ranch
house.

Car tires spit dust up as they rolled down the gravel
road. Dani glanced around, nervousness rising in her stomach. Out in the middle
of nowhere—they probably didn’t have WiFi. She might not even be able to check
Twitter.

“I will give you a hundred million dollars if you turn
around and take me home now,” she said.

No one responded.

“Please?”

Therese shook her head, long blonde hair swishing over
her shoulders. “You don’t have a hundred million dollars.”

Killjoy. “Maybe I could get that in advertising dollars if I
was allowed to blog about this.”

The car turned, swinging around and coming to a halt
in front of the ranch house. It was moments before the dust settled outside her
door. Dani grasped the strap of her pale blue coach purse, sighed, and hauled
open the door.

Heat blasted her immediately from the hot sun
overhead, and a cough sputtered past her lips—apparently the dust wasn’t that
settled after all. She gave a groan of displeasure and stepped out of the car.
Gravel crunched under her heels as she stood straight and shifted, smoothing
her jeans subconsciously. She slid the strap of her bag over her arm and pulled
the sunglasses off the top of her head down to cover her eyes, then kicked the
door shut with her heel.

Therese and Randy rose as well, talking amongst
themselves, and car doors slammed behind her as she took in a view of the farm
again. The air was tinged with the scent of animals and wind blew, tossing her
dark hair around her shoulders.

“Dani!” a voice called behind her.

She turned and waved over the roof of the car at Gus Campbell
standing in the open doorway to the ranch house. He was an old friend of her
late father’s, in his sixties with no family, and owned acres of ranch land.
Gus had been kind to her for as long as she could remember and there seemed no
better place to hide out for a while. He was taller than he looked, leaning
heavily on a cane held in his left hand. The heat didn’t agree with him,
dappling his broad forehead with moisture, and she figured he was doubly warm
in the red plaid shirt tucked over his girth and pair of worn dark jeans.

Gus grinned broadly and then moved to talk to Randy,
who carted her bags out from the trunk.

A Doberman came barreling out of the house past Gus,
stump of a tail struggling to wag, and long pink tongue rolling form its mouth.
It paused for a moment by Dani, let her give it a scratch behind the ears, then
raced in the direction of the fields in the distance.

Well, she did like animals, and there were
plenty to get along with. Danyiah took several steps from the car while Gus, Therese,
and Randy spoke, glancing around.

Middle of nowhere.

Indefinite amount of time.

This will be unbearable with
or without a dog to keep me company.

She had her laptop—she could journal still. And would.
And maybe when everything was sorted out and they were able to catch and put a
stop to whatever loser had been threatening her, she could post everything
she’d documented. In fact, she’d be set for blog posts for maybe a month or so
when she got back.

Unless this turns out to be
the most boring place ever. Which was
possible, but then Dani Girl was known for finding something funny with
everything. Its writer stalked, threatened, sent into hiding, working as a
farmhand? Oh yeah. It would be funny.

A pair of horses whinnied from the fence several feet
away. She took a few steps toward them, grinning. One was a bay, the other
palomino, both hanging their heads over the top of the fence.

“You angling for food?” she said softly.

Voices shouted in the distance and a steady thrum beat
the ground.

Danyiah turned, frowned. The noise grew louder.

Around the side of the bright red barn ahead, dust
flew and a huge brown horse came barreling toward her at full speed, blond mane
flying and dark eyes wide.

Dani froze from head to toe, staring wide-eyed at the
beast.

Behind it, a pair of men shouted, waving their arms.
One deep voice carried over the beat of hooves, hollering for her to stop it.

Stop it? It was the size of a Mack truck!

Panic filled her, heart jumping up into her throat. As
the horse neared, she squealed and covered her eyes, shoulders turning inward
in a cringe as she braced to be run down.

Breeze brushed past her left side, whipping her hair
for a moment as the horse passed. She peeled her fingers back one by one,
glanced down to see she was fine. A little dusty, but all in one piece. She
breathed out a sigh of relief just as the pair of figures beat around the side
of the barn after the horse.

“He’s headed—” one started.

“For the grain—I got it.” A short, skinny guy ran past
her, tipping his head in her direction with a grin. “Ma’am.” And off he went,
in pursuit of the enormous horse who had his head stuck in a barrel against the
side of the house.

Dani shook her head. It would make such a good
vlog topic—she could get really animated in her telling of it and do sound
effects and stuff.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

She snapped to attention again, turning back to face
the other white man.

A black Stetson sat on his head, casting dark shadows
over his face—but she glimpsed enough of his expression to see it was a scowl.
Brows pulled low over dark eyes, and his chiseled jaw was scruffy with
something well past five o’clock shadow. As for the rest of him, he stood over
a head above her, and a white T-shirt streaked with dirt stretched over his
powerful shoulders and chest.

If he hadn’t just snarled at her, she might’ve needed
to pick her jaw off the ground; instead, she prickled with irritation and
crossed her arms under her breasts. “Excuse me?”

“You hear us shouting to stop a horse and you cover
your eyes? Just standing there? I repeat, what the hell is wrong with you?”

Dani ground her teeth. “Your freakishly large horse
could’ve killed me! Was I supposed to grab on? Stop it with my mutant psychic
powers or something? Create a force field?”

Only when Gus reached them and placed a gentle hand on
her shoulder did she realize just how tightly she was wound. Dani sucked in a
breath, trying to calm her nerves, but glowered still at the stranger who
glared right back at her.

“This is my…well, sort of goddaughter, I suppose you
could say,” Gus said, gesturing at her. “She’ll be staying here for a bit.” He
turned to her next. “Danyiah Jackson, meet my head horse wrangler, Adam
Cooper.”

Cooper did not extend his hand.

Neither did she.

“Erm…well.” Gus cleared his throat.

Steps approached and a moment later, the giant horse
appeared in her peripheral vision along with the guy—Dewey, Gus had called him—leading
him with firm hand on the halter. Cooper said nothing more, just reached for
the horse and swung onto him bareback.

Once he’d settled, he glanced down at Gus. “I’ll
discuss this with you later.”

Gus brushed his hand over his sweaty brow and nodded.

Cooper urged the horse on, not looking back once.
Dewey jogged at his side, turning just once to nod again at Dani before
catching up.

Dear God, I want to go home.

“Come, Dani.” Gus smiled at her and gestured for the
house. “Let’s get you settled inside. Adam will warm up the more you talk to
him, you’ll see.”